Review: One Day in December by Josie Silver

Title: One Day in December

Author: Josie Silver

Published: October 2018, Broadway Books (Crown Publishing)

Format: ARC Paperback

Source: Publisher

Summary: 

A love story about what happens after you meet, or rather, don’t meet the one.

Laurie
is pretty sure love at first sight doesn’t exist anywhere but the
movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day,
she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet,
there’s a moment of pure magic…and then her bus drives away.

Certain
they’re fated to find each other again, Laurie spends a year scanning
every bus stop and cafe in London for him. But she doesn’t find him, not
when it matters anyway. Instead they “reunite” at a Christmas party,
when her best friend Sarah giddily introduces her new boyfriend to
Laurie. It’s Jack, the man from the bus. It would be.

What
follows for Laurie, Sarah and Jack is ten years of friendship,
heartbreak, missed opportunities, roads not taken, and destinies
reconsidered. One Day in December is a joyous, heartwarming and
immensely moving love story to escape into and a reminder that fate
takes inexplicable turns along the route to happiness.

My thoughts: As much as I love my psychological thrillers/suspense reads, every once in a while I need a palate cleanser from those books and this one was the perfect book for that. I absolutely loved this read…it grabbed me right from the start and never let go of my heart the entire time…this book is definitely going down as a favorite!

I think what appealed most to me about this book is that it isn’t just a tale of girl meets boy, they fall in love and live happily ever after. Oh no, that is definitely not the case here. This book is about love at first sight, yet, but that love is never materialized because Laurie and Jack don’t actually meet when they first see each other. It’s not until a year later that they finally meet and by then he is dating her best friend, Sarah. Oh the irony! But, isn’t it true that the best relationships often start out as friendships? I know that is what happened with my husband and I…we met in the 8th grade and were best friends all through high school (he wanted to date and I didn’t!)…fast forward 14 years and we finally end up dating and then getting married! But I digress.

This book then follows Laurie, Sarah and Jack through the next ten years and we watch as their friendships go through all the highs and lows that friendships go through. I loved that the story is narrated from both Laurie and Jack’s perspectives…this really allows you to feel a deeper connection to these characters. And just as important as the relationship between Jack and Laurie is, we also see the strong female friendship Laurie has with Sarah and I think this is an integral part of the overall story line.

This book took me by surprise…I thought it would be a light, breezy read that I would fly through and while it was a relatively quick read, I didn’t expect to have such an emotional connection to the characters as I did. I ended up falling in love with these characters over and over again and as much as I laughed during this story, I probably shed that many tears, too. I highly recommend picking up this book!!!